Have A Heart

I finished just barely in time for Valentine’s Day, this year!

This Have A Heart wall hanging finished a bit larger than I had in mind, but that’s how it goes when I make it up as I go along.  23.5” X 23.5”

I have seen many similar hangings on Pinterest and wanted to try one myself.  I’m not thrilled with it, but it will do.

I pulled fabrics from my stash.

I cut 4.5” squares and 3.5” squares.  The small squares were backed with Wonder Under.

I used my paper crafting BigKick to cut the hearts.

25 quickly cut hearts.

I arranged the blocks and stitched them together.  Then fused the hearts in place.

I raw edge appliquéd the hearts with black thread for an outlined look.  Then quilted around each square.

I then couched two strands of Perle Coton 8 around the outside edge of the hearts.  

 

This was all finished on the 13th.

On the 14th I made a tag to attach to the wall hanging for a stab at added detail interest.

I might try this again someday in hopes of getting it more to my liking. 

He’s called Chillingsworth

I’ve had a tiny scrap of Chillingsworth on my small design board since finishing my last Halloween quilt last year.  Suddenly while sewing I felt I needed a handy tiny pin cushion.

His severed head was perfect for that!

The next waiting project I pulled from the stash drawers were two Chillingsworth panels.  They’ve been languishing for a couple of years while I collected more Halloween fabrics in anticipation of a clear idea of how to use this panel.

I knew I did not want a throw quilt.  But all plans kept leading to a quite large wall hanging also.  I spent 4 days looking through Pinterest for inspiration.  I finally came across 1” Scrappy Strips by Leila Gardunia.  They are paper piecing strips.  Now, I could have sat and drawn them myself, but for $10 I could just photocopy what I needed and get started sewing right now.

Anyone familiar with these Chillingsworth panels might notice that I cut down the sides of the panel.  I worried about doing that not being sure those top and bottom corner designs would look too odd.  It just had too much blank space around him for me.  So I cut anyway.  The corners don’t look odd to me.  OR if they do, they just add to the already oddity of Chillingsworth wearing only a top hat.

I started with this strip design but it looked too ... something.  I didn’t like it for a border for him.  So I chose the straight piecing design strip.

Here is where that awesome little plastic steam(less) roller became my best ever buddy.  It made pressing those hundreds of strips quick and easy.

The paper is so quick to pull off of these simple strips.

The trash is proof of the fun I had making these strips.

While I was making the borders I wondered how to quilt him without having to freemotion quilt around him and without having straight rows of quilting going through him.  So I drew my quilting lines.  (Forgot to take a photo).

I finish the back of my hanging quilts with strips to run a flat stick through.

Each of my kids will get one of these Chillingsworth guys.  I think the cream color one can be left out all year for creep-loving people...like my kids.

Stash busting!  It’s so awesome to get some of these older purchases made into “things”. 

An early-ish Happy Halloween!